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138 comments so far

Wow. This article covers my favorite topic in the world. What is normal/ sane?I could write a thesis on this.

1. Some of the references I would draw on would be Vincent van Gogh, who's biography I just finished. He was clearly a little unbalanced - he cut off his ear. He knew he was wierd. Would he have produced those works of art in today's society? No he would have been medicated and locked away, unable to harness creative energy.

2. Another reference is the film a dangerous method, which covers Freudian and jungian psychology. Jung psychoanalysis his disturbed patient and had an affair with her. These two physicians are considered to be the father and son of modern psychology.

3. The third reference is myself. Ex marketing professional with psych degree with multiple Undiagnosable symptoms of distress. Am I crazy? Or is the broadcast media out to get me. There's a good argument for and against...

4. Lastly, There is a phenomenon known as the 'identified patient.' this means the person who presents with symptoms of distress is not always the one with the mental illness. Sometimes they are a product or victim of their environment. An abusive partner, a dysfunctional workplace, absentee parenting, justifiable paranoia from crime or surveillance or even being part of a society that supports a different school of thought.

Are these people sane? Who knows. All I know is that some of the most fascinating, talented and knowledgeable people I can think of have all been a little crazy. Is anyone truly 100 % sane anymore?

Commenter

Allison

Location

Dystopia

Date and time

February 28, 2013, 5:28PM

The classic catch 22 situation. Yossarian, the central character in Joseph Heller's book, is a WW2 airman who wants to be discharged because of insanity. The air force decides that you would have to be insane NOT to want to get out of the air force during wartime, therefore Yossarian must be sane and cannot be discharged. Is modern life similar? Many of us recognise the insanity of it, but that recognition proves our sanity. It's those who can't see how mad the whole dam thing is who are the mad ones.

Commenter

rudy

Date and time

March 01, 2013, 3:39AM

Catch 22 one of my all time favourite books. A great analogy for sane/insane juxtaposition in a certain context.

Commenter

SmartMonkey

Date and time

March 01, 2013, 6:31AM

Just because you're paranoid, don't mean they're not after you

Commenter

Kurt

Date and time

March 01, 2013, 8:31AM

thanks, I might add catch 22 to my reading list. Sounds interesting.

I think it's actions not thoughts that should truly determine sanity. The people with the biggest mental problems are those who are adamant that their erratic unprovoked attacks on others are justified. That's criminal insanity.

I often wonder how many celebrities would pass a psych evaluation.

Commenter

Allison

Location

Dystopia

Date and time

March 01, 2013, 9:12AM

Wow alison in one breath you've both enabled the concept that those prone to self harm should be left too it for fear of stifling their creativity - lets take that a little further and see if it leads to a society that values your work more than your life and secondly you've taken away the whole legal right of mentally ill people too refuse medication provided they aren't a danger to themselves or others. As a mentally ill person I think I would like the state to intervene and take care of me when I was a risk to myself or others but clearly incapable of understanding.

Commenter

Doc

Date and time

March 01, 2013, 4:09PM

Doc, the right of the state to intervene in medical treatment is a complex issue. I was a victim of forced mental health treatment ten years ago due to 911 and this lead to state and political driven corruption. It's common knowledge now so I can speak freely.

They didn't admit me up because I was crazy, they sedated me because I was at the centre of a very precarious situation and had sensitive information on wrongdoing of some prominent powerful people which few people knew about, involving issues like civil liberties.

I am still really angry about the way I was treated which lead to massive goverment coverups and misdiagnoses and was forced under heavy sedation to sign a document forfeiting my right to sue in order to be released from hospital.So much for the Hippocratic oath, eh. I can't reconcile this miscarriage of justice in my head ten years later. Can you? The state cannot be allowed to intervene in matters of medical treatment which are a conflict of interest.

At the same time I recognize state driven medical treatment is occasionally necessary for criminally insane people. Which I -and my family -are definitely not.

In the words of gnarls barkley - does that make me crazy?

Commenter

Ali-bye

Location

Former P.O.W. of dystopia

Date and time

March 02, 2013, 2:50PM

And doc,

If I decide to kill myself it is because my life situation is so dire it is not worth living and there is really no other option. So yes I think people should be allowed to kill themselves if ten years have passed and things are even worse and the only person who wants them to stay alive is a doctor whose scared of malpractice, and they have to take psychotropic drugs just to have the will power to get out of bed.

Commenter

Ali-bye

Date and time

March 02, 2013, 8:12PM

While I don't go all the way with Royce White's analysis, I do think there is a fair amount of truth to it. Addiction is a mental illness - though not everyone who smokes a joint is addicted to marijuana. In fact, very few are. Just as most people who drink are not alcoholics.

White is correct, though, that the stresses of living under contemporary capitalism produce pathologies in the psychology of individual people. And you don't read Marx to realise that the increasing wealth and power of the top 2 percent of the population make things a lot tougher for the other 98 percent - all you need is to read publicly available statistics.

And are elite sports professionals prone to mental illness? You bet your sweet bippy! Take a cross-section of athletically capable young people, put them through the totally inhuman pressures of professional sport, subject them to the glare of media publicity and then demand that they act as role models for every corporate brand on the market and what do you expect? You get pathologies like you wouldn't believe. They usually manifest in some way that, at least at first, doesn't adversely affect their sports performance, But that doesn't prevent their minds being really mixed up.

What is the solution? I'd eliminate professional sport. And live coverage of the remaining matches.

Commenter

Greg Platt

Location

Brunswick

Date and time

February 28, 2013, 5:33PM

always amused when the term 'capitalism' or 'contemporary capitalism' is inserted into debates about the essentials of human nature.

but i reckon the finest moment in the history of 'contemporary capitalism' iswhen xi in The Gods Must Be Crazy travels to the edge of the earth to throw the coke bottle off the cliff.